Ph.D. in Literature Program Lecture Series

I what she calls the “epistemological trouble” experienced by French literary scholars when dealing with French writing beyond the Hexagon, Oana Panaïté focuses on the “unstable borders” of what is put under the notion of “francophone literature.”

First in her analysis she sets out to reassess the relevance of critical concepts and ideas such as “national literature”, “committed author”, “authentic writing”, by examining their effectiveness in relation to recent fiction works. Second, she offers a dynamic description of the literary process envisioned neither as a reflection of reality nor a political counter-discourse, but as a constant exchange between a series of equally important agents: writers, readers, and critics. Third, she aims to provide an “integral” reading model which closely connects the temporal dimension of literature with the artistic attributes of individual texts.